Brian Johnson

Episode 4: "Overachieve" With a "Trusting Mindset"!

"To be sure, great performers
are well trained, experienced, smart, and in some cases, divinely
talented. But the way their brains work during a performance is a lot
more like a squirrel's than like Einstein's. Like squirrels, the best
in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning
their abilities—they flat out trust their skills, which is why we
call this high-performance state of mind the "Trusting Mindset."
Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great
performers from the rest of the pack." ~ Dr. John Eliot
from Overachievement

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Transcript

"Overachieve" With a "Trusting Mindset"!

"To be sure, great performers
are well trained, experienced, smart, and in some cases, divinely
talented. But the way their brains work during a performance is a lot
more like a squirrel's than like Einstein's. Like squirrels, the best
in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning
their abilities—they flat out trust their skills, which is why we
call this high-performance state of mind the "Trusting Mindset."
Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great
performers from the rest of the pack." ~ Dr. John Eliot
from Overachievement

Squirrels and tossing keys. And
"Training" vs. "Trusting" Mindsets. That's where
you'll find the keys to performing like a true rock star
overachiever.

Huh?

Seriously. In his great
book, Overachievement,
Dr. John Eliot tells some great stories to bring his point home that,
if you want to be an overachiever, you've got to learn to turn off
that overactive cerebral cortex of yours and just think like a
squirrel. :)

Imagine this: Have you ever seen a
squirrel scurry across a telephone wire? What do you think it was
thinking?

Quick hint: It wasn't. Squirrels don't
think. They just scurry. :)

Well, it's a little more complex than
that (and Eliot goes into the cool science behind it) but the point
is simple: they're not up there on the high wire thinking, "Oh,
my! This one's high. It's a little windy today. If I take a wrong
step that's gonna hurt. OMG! It'll kill me actually. OK. Left front
foot, now back right foot. Oh, Geez! This is harder than I thought it
would be." :)

Thoughts like that require a cerebral
cortex. And, if you want to get into what Eliot calls the "Trusting
Mindset"—the mindset of overachievers—you need to learn to
turn it off and give your skills free reign, not focusing "on
anything but the target of that particular moment."

How about this?

You ever toss your keys to a friend or
spouse? If you're anything like the students in Eliot's classes with
whom he's done this little test, you can hit your friend chest high
every time. No worries. You just tossed the keys, right? No worries,
no stress, just see the target and toss. Welcome to the trusting
mindset.

Now, imagine if all the sudden you're
in the middle of your favorite basketball team's arena competing for
a $1m prize at half-time. You've got 5 other people out there and
we're going to see who can most consistently hit someone in the chest
with their key toss.

Eek! With something on the line, would
you still have that calm and cool approach—you know, just stepping
up and casually tossing the keys like you did before, totally
independent of worries about the result (the TRUSTING Mindset)? Or,
would you start thinking about stuff—from what you could win or
lose (!) to the fact you might look like a total idiot if you hit the
guy in the knee or accidentally tossed the keys over their head?
Enter what Eliot calls the TRAINING Mindset.

Guess what?

The top performers in ANY field perform
in the TRUSTING Mindset. Whether it's a brain surgeon or a basketball
player, a deal maker or a golfer. They ALL "trust their swing"
and focus on nothing but "the target of that particular moment."

Of course, there's a time for training
in every field. And then there's the time for trusting. As Eliot says
brilliantly, "Selling is very different from trying to be a
salesman... That A you got at Business School in "Sales &
Marketing" isn't what's going to close the deal. In fact, if all
you're doing is thinking about what you should do, you're going to
look like a self-conscious goof and do anything but close. When
you're in the middle of a deal, you've got to turn that part of your
brain off and trust yourself."

The book is all about helping us get in
and live in that trusting mindset in the pressure-packed moments of
our lives when our destinies are determined. Fun!

---> One more example (among MANY)
to bring the point home between the "Trusting" and the
"Training" Mindset--the difference between the cerebral
cortex-free squirrel scurrying across the wire and the hesitant,
over-thinking individual getting stuck: Eliot does another experiment
where he lays a 2 by 4 on the ground and asks his students to walk
over it. Everyone does it perfectly. They take one step then another
in perfect position on the board. No issue. (Trusting Mindset). Then,
he raises the 2 by 4 off the ground. Then what? Enter "Training
Mindset." All the sudden we're thinking about it and we take
tentative, calculating steps and faltering steps.

"Thinking is a habit, and like
any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and
repetition."

"I will show you how you, too,
can consistently achieve the kind of intense focus that marks all the
best performers in the world. I will show you how to reshape your
thinking so you will be able to trust your skills and experiences and
let ‘em rip--to perform so freely and intensely that you will
become not just good at what you do, but something of an artist at
it."